


Revelations

by leporicide



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Death of minor background characters, End of the World, Eren with a motorcyle, M/M, Religious Themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-13
Updated: 2014-04-13
Packaged: 2018-01-19 04:39:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1455730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leporicide/pseuds/leporicide
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him." 6:7-8.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Revelations

**Author's Note:**

> Jeaneren has struck me again but so has the end of the world. I need to brush up on my Revelations knowledge but I believe this story is passable. It's going to be part of a series, all relating to Jean and his interactions with apocalyptic entities, mainly Jeaneren though. Unbeta'd and written when not in the best state of mind.

He has the most alluring smile, is the first thing Jean thinks when he opens the door. The next thing he notes is the particular _something_ of his eyes that feel unnatural.  Jean is consumed by them for a moment, feels him stomach growl awkwardly before blushing.  The stranger hasn't said anything yet, just stands calmly at the door.

"Hungry?" He asks with a toothy grin, makes him looks young, about seventeen or so, not much younger than Jean.  Jean feels the decency to look away, laugh nervously at the doorway of his white house.  His mind is temporally distracted by the pale motorcycle that sits in front of his lawn, undoubtedly belonging to the stranger before him.

"I guess so," he mumbles. The male's holds his smile, and Jean wonders how he can make a leather jacket work in ninety degree weather, or  why he looks so out of place in all this average scenery.  He blames the helmet clutched between inner arm and the color of his eyes.

After a moment of silence, the stranger speaks.  "I'm looking for Armin."

Jean struggles with his thoughts, thrown off by his sudden urge to just fill his belly.  "If you're looking for young doctor Armin, he lives a couple of blocks down."  Jean points west but the boy doesn't turn, just nods as if he might have known all along before thanking Jean in a melodic tone, tells him his name is Eren, and he might be staying in town for a few nights.  Jean tells him its best not to wander late because there's something catching in the air and they've already lost six people this week.  Eren laughs, says catching something as alluding as that would be an honor.

Jean doesn't know what to make of that, so he waves Eren goodbye and heads straight to the fridge.  He swallows down the three bags of chips and two bottles of water, and he knows he's full but there's something hollow in his chest, eating at his insides.

The feeling is gone in a couple of hours and Jean forgets who knocked on the door.

Sunnydale is a small town located in between two sets of mountains, effectively blocking the small town from the outside world. There's only one road, a path that leads both in and out. It's average in every sense of the word,  once living up to its name but ever since fifteen years ago, there's been a heavy cloud that hangs above them, like a warning.  It brings no rain or wind, just dimness.  At night, there's this fester that falls from above, moves like fog and crawls up the eyes and the nose and the mouth and curls into the flesh and they find the bodies too late, in the middle of the road of the only path that leads both in and out.  The bodies are thin and broken, like they've starved for years rather than a single night.  They've taken countless bodies to young doctor Armin and every time, the blond who lives a couple of blocks down would shake his head at a loss.  He's considered the best to have practiced medicine in their small town and when he fails, that's all there is to it.

* * *

The walk to the supermarket is a short one.  He's been a lot more hungry lately, noticed the town has been craving something they can't seem to fill.  A first, he thought he was sick, that this was the daytime fester.  His mother went to see young doctor Armin who lives a couple of blocks down for his opinion.  Young doctor Armin, with his light blond hair tired back loosely, gave her a small smile and told her not to worry, that everyone has been getting hungry lately and maybe their bodies are fighting infections.

The supermarket is baron at his arrival and he when he turns to the refrigerated aisle, he spots him. 

He calls out for Eren and Eren turns on his heels with a smile, an empty platter for meat in his hands.  It takes Jean a moment to notice the slab had fallen on the floor and lay there collecting dust at Eren's feet.

"Jean," he says with a smile and something that tastes like mock surprise but Jean doesn't hunger for pleasantries anymore.

"Find any food in this dump?"  He's trying to make small talk, something about speaking with Eren makes the hunger leave him, if only for a moment.

He shakes his head and Jean notes how unearthly Eren is, how the color of his eyes don't match the laws of the universe, how smooth his skin is, the color of his smile. "Just this meat."  They both eye it from the floor and Jean's stomach demands attention.  He can't stop the next thing that leaves his mouth.

"You gonna take that?"

Eren shrugs but there's something horrific about his smile as Jean shakily bends down in front of him and picks up the steak gingerly in his hands before running out, the empty cash registers tickling the back of his mind.

That, and Eren's mindless cackling.

He doesn't speak to his mother that night, lets her cook the steak without much thought.  Jean goes to bed with Eren on his mind, the curve of his neck, the color of his eyes, the blacks of his lashes.  He's not human, Jean realizes, that he's too much of a person to be a person.  Jean knows that the world is swallowing them all whole but Eren's just swallowing him.

* * *

Class has been canceled, canceled since last week because there's no food and no one can sit with aching bellies and tired eyes and dry throats.  Jean knows he should use this time to scout for food, ask young doctor Armin who lives a couple of blocks down if he had anything to spare, since he's young but seemed to have stopped growing.

He finds himself at a loss, and drags his body down the sidewalk.  His legs tremble with effort and Jean just feels so tired, as if he's half starved when he ate mere moments ago.  Young doctor Armin lives in a small black house at the end of the block, that smells of disinfectant and disease.  It's faint, tickles Jean's nose but he can't be bothered anymore.  He makes his way up the path in the yard, looking up when he hears the faint creaking of the old wooden rocking chair.

"You okay there, Jean?"

He's startled by the sound but Jean looks up with something akin to a smile on his face.  His lips crack under the effort and he can taste some blood.  Eren gives him a raised eyebrow, stands up from the rocking chair and makes his way down the path to Jean. "You don't look so good."

Eren looks perfectly fine.  The town is riddled with disease and this _hunger_ and Eren looks perfectly fine, Jean wants to kiss him, Jean wants to swallow him whole and fill his belly.  Instead, he rolls his eyes and laughs.

"I could be better, jackass."

Eren doesn't laugh with him but Jean spots the amused glint in his eyes, appearing a slightly different shade than before, as if Eren can't remember himself enough to keep his eye color consistent.  Jean does lean in to kiss him.

It reeks of blood and something foul but Eren's lips are unusually soft, and he lets him, lets Jean hold him by his bottom lip and bites.  He doesn't taste blood but he tastes something similar to the big bang and the ancients and the war of all things.  He feels oddly sated and when young doctor Armin comes strolling out of the house, Jean forgets why he came.

Armin waves him off, offering him some salad in a bowl like it will keep him full.  They both no better but Jean can't stop watching Eren, who can't stop watching Armin, who can't stop watching Jean.  The salad bowl feels heavy in Jean's hands but he makes it back home without a single bite and goes to bed without supper that night.

* * *

Jean buries his mother in the backyard.  Only five people in town come to witness.  There isn't that many left of them.  The hunger and the fester have grown dreadfully harsher the last couple of days.  Jean hasn't felt the full blow, has been sating himself with small kisses from something otherworldly but his mother hadn't been so lucky.  She's heavy to drag into the hole but he doesn't think of it much.  The path of this town has been blocked for two weeks now, no sign of life from the outside.

Jean wonders if this is all biblical.

It's that thought that has him picking up the bible that night, alone in an empty white house with the sound of the cloud above him. He's never been religious but something compels him with the soft curves of the paper and the faded ink.  His fingers move on their own accord and he turns to Revelations 6, holds the page and looks down, reads the lettering with starved eyes.

_" And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and [see] thou hurt not the oil and the wine". 6:5-6_

"A black horse, " Jean mutters and the only think that comes to his mind is young doctor Amin's (who lives a couple of blocks down) black car, slick and never used, that sits heavy on his driveway.  The next thought stops him, that the four horsemen arrive at the end of days, that they come in order and Armin is not human, hasn't been human since fifteen years ago when he first arrived and the hunger and the festering followed him like a shadow.

With shaky fingers, Jean turns the page, wets his dry lips but there's no saliva in his body.

_"And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him."_

The bible drops from Jean's hands with the sound of a motorcycle, he knows to be pale in color, that screeches to the front of his house.  If he listens closely, he can hear the sounds of Hell, the faint screams and the silent ends.  He hurriedly shoves the Bible under the sink, runs to the door just as it opens.

He has the most alluring smile, is the first thing Jean thinks when he stands in front of the open door. The next thing he notes is the particular something of Eren's eyes that feel _unnatural_. 

He knows it's Eren's fault that they are all mad with something so filthy, and when the knife sinks through the leather jacket, Jean lets himself think he's saved the town.  Eren isn't amused however, stands in his kitchen with a tired look, and Jean watches him pull the butcher's knife from his side with a sigh, like he's been through this countless times.  It takes all of Jean's willpower not to fall to the floor and crumble, his knees shake.

Eren walks toward him and Jean tastes a flavor so inhumane on his lips that he sinks to the wooden boards, and Eren follows him, crouching in front with the knife still in his hands, not a drop a blood and not a hole in that black leather jacket, his helmet rests on the counter. Jean has the fleeting thought as to why he even bothers wearing it.

"Am I going to die? Is everyone going to die?"

He hasn't heard his voice in so long and it cracks like a child.  Eren scoots closer to Jean.  "It's inevitable," he says but his mouth doesn't move. He reaches a gloved hand to touch Jean's cheek as in apology, but Jean knows he's not sincere, has done this to thousands of nations.

"Are you Death?"  The question still sounds dumb out loud but Eren gives him a toothy grin and a small laugh, and Jean understands everything.  Understands that the end of days is upon them, young doctor Armin rode into town in his slick black car and brought Famine and the process sped up when Eren came in, pale motorcycle in tow, and the death moved quicker.  Something about this reward is fitting, that he understands, and he starts to cry which surprises them both, he thinks, that he had liquid to spare for tears.

Eren shushes him, and gets up but Jean, with no strength, reaches out to hold his sleeve. "Stay with me please."  Death doesn't answer, gives him a short nod and waits with him while Jean's body thins out and his stomach swallows his insides and he stops breathing.

” _I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals_ ," Eren whispers under his breath, strokes Jean's hair with something that looks so real, almost affection. _"Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, "Come!"  I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.”_

"The antichrist," Jean whispers to Eren and Eren-- Eren hums something back.

The walk to Armin's house is a long, broken one.  Eren doesn't speak and Jean debates what they all are, what being an omen means.  Young doctor Armin lives in a small black house at the end of the block, that smells of disinfectant and disease.  It's faint, tickles Jean's nose but he can't be bothered anymore.  He makes his way up the path in the yard, looking up when he hears the faint creaking of the old wooden door.  Armin stands in the doorway, and Jean wants to thank god personally for the irony of disease or famine or whatever the fuck he was and his medical degree.

Amin gives him a small smile, collects himself in little breaths before walking over to the two.

"Sorry to speed up the process," Eren calls out to him. "You were talking too long."  Armin shrugs, his bony shoulders seem to break and fix themselves.

"It's inevitable. Where do you plan to go now?"

"Somewhere in the states," Eren shrugs out and Jean wants to ask if they are missing people, that there should be four of them, not three. "She'll be waiting for us there.

"War is anything but patient."

Jean agrees, knows that war is a rapid process, that it builds and explodes, so when Armin offers him a seat in his black car and Eren picks up his motorcycle, he doesn't speak, just sits where he belongs.  The car rears into life and they leave the small town, on the path that only leads in and out.  Jean passes his mother's grave, passes the deserted supermarket, passes the two sets of mountains and feels something leave him entirely.  Something vastly important.

He wonders if any of this changes how soft Eren's lips are.


End file.
